Official Announcement

[Mark]

Originally Posted by Rick

I believe the visceral reaction of most of today's 'modern' peoples (non sword aficionados) to art swords will be of a blood letting device ; albeit a very pretty one , and regardles of how new , still viewed as anachronistic , an object for achieving human destruction which is used in a very intimate way .

You have put your finger on a central point, Rick. Most of use collect swords in large part for their aesthetic and historic value, and not for their quality weapons (at least I do). In viewing the sword as art (or any other weapon -- firearms are in the same situation I would say), this becomes part of the meaning, the tension, in the piece as a work of art. It is rather like some of the performance art of today, meant to shock you into seeing the world in a different light. On the one hand you see the beauty of the sword, on the other, their lethality. It forces you either to accept the duality of such things, or to see the lack of duality, if you will, between such extremes as art (life) and violence (death). Perhaps it is the yin-yang, perhaps it really is just one grey circle?